Monthly Archives: April 2011

A colleague at work told me a story of how his 3 year old daughter can play with his iPad, open apps and work many games that are designed for kids. He put it down to the clever way Apple designs the software.

I sort of agreed, but then thought about what my kids can do with computers and it made me realise that it isn’t the hardware or the software, but the children who can do these things. My daughter is 7 years old and can open the Barbie website on an old Windows laptop, navigate to the various games and play them all without any problems. She has been able to do this for 2 years. My son can do almost anything with a PC and the same is true of his iPod Touch or Sony Ericsson K800i.

When I was a child I was the clever one because I could work the TV remote control. Kids today are surrounded by technology and just know how to use it. Even though I am certain that the iPad and iPhone are easier to use for non-tech people, I am more certain that children will learn to work anything if it is there in front of them. Let’s not give all the credit to the makers of technology. Much should go to the children using it.

Today’s comment of the day comes from James on the subject of resellers buying all the iPads- “Has no one heard of this magical thing called the “Interweb”? Or is it called the “World Wide Net”? I never remember. Anyways, word has it that you can buy things through this magical, interconnecting of computers through a series of tubes. That means you don’t have to stand in lines or wait for stores to get a supply of anything. When Apple has one, they send it to you. Pretty simple. Then you can get your internetPAD tablet computational device, and spend even more time on the “WebberNET”.

Seriously, though. I’ve done the standing in line on the first day thing – for the iPhone 3GS at the 14th St location in New York (very close to where I work anyways). I only needed to arrive about 6 AM – and was out by around 8 or 8:30 AM. There are limits to how far I’ll go, but it was kind of fun to do, ONCE. But from here on out, I order online. If I don’t have the new gizmo on the first day – it’s no big deal. That’s just part of being an ADULT – keeping things in perspective.

It’s one thing to complain about how this affects availability to regular non-reseller consumers. Tough cookies – you lived without an iPad 18 months ago; you can live a little longer without. It really would be right for Apple to raise the price at the store (or online). I’m of the opinion that they’d be both entitled and smart to do so.

Unfortunately, the backlash against Apple for raising the price would be astounding and ultimately damaging in the long-term. Honestly, the public is too stupid to get it.

Last year, Jack White, of the now-defunct White Stripes, felt forced to defend his record label’s practice of directly auctioning off limited-edition releases on eBay. His argument, which was totally, completely right, was that when his label just sells the limited-edition piece for a fixed price, this is the kind of crap that happens. Some slick reseller without a lick of artistic talent buys ten copies from the label’s store then resells them on eBay himself – making a ginormous profit. White’s argument is that the label and artist get the retail price, while the reseller gets possibly hundreds of dollars more. By having the label auction off their own work, the artist gets more and the label gets more to reinvest in the artist and other artists as well.

It’s just too bad that the public doesn’t understand these foundational economics.”

There is a view held by many mobile users that the iPhone is far and away the best smartphone on the planet. This is a view I have held for over a year now, but in the last two weeks I am starting to wonder if it has been caught up.

The Experia Arc showed me that a smartphone can have a better form and indeed a better design than the iPhone. It also showed me that a non iOS smartphone can work just as well as the iPhone for day to day tasks.

The HTC Sensation looks like it will also match, and maybe surpass, the iPhone in many areas. The fact that video can be delivered directly to the device marks possibly the biggest change of all.

For a long time now Apple has been able to use iTunes like a tractor beam to keep its iPhone users loyal. Where else can you go to download music, rent and buy movies, download apps, audiobooks and all sorts of other media? It is all held together in one place and offers access to all of the media you need.

Amazon has worked hard to break into this area where music is often cheaper than on iTunes and now HTC, Sony Ericsson and others are aiming their sights at mobile video. It is still all somewhat disparate, but it is getting there. The size of the Android user base alone will ensure that the publishers take notice and we could start to see genuine competition to iTunes.

None of this lessens the appeal of the iPhone or iOS, but it does offer a serious alternative. The expected delay for the next iPhone will compound this, but I wouldn’t bet against Apple coming out with something spectacular nearer the end of the year. I hope it does because everyone else will try even harder next year.

Great comment of the day from Statto re today’s mobile data entry- “It’s not perfect, but then I think sometimes it is easy to believe everything was perfect on previous devices with hardware keyboards or styluses, and I think that’s not the case.”